Iron & Wine @ UNC

[Brandi Carlile - What Can I Say]

Yongmin and I caught Iron & Wine at the Memorial Hall last night.

The show opened with Califone. Though "critically acclaimed", Califone's highly experimental sounds simply put me to bed. The vocals were extremely muffled and there was too many instrument-switching within a song. They linked their songs together, not playing them back to back but using experimental sounds to link one track's ending to the next's beginning. What you got at the end was a very confusing act - there was no cue when the next song would start and there were no pauses for the audience to clap, take a breath and appreciate what was being played.

Needless to say, when Iron & Wine finally came on at roughly 21:20 (1 hour and 20 minutes after the opening), I was so relieved. Sam Beam, the man behind Iron & Wine had clear, smooth vocals. There's a kind of peace just listening to him sing. But it was not enough. Was never a fan of Iron & Wine (I only have 2 tracks on my iTunes), so most of his numbers were very foreign to me. In fact, they all sound quite nearly the same.

"Is this the last number?" was on our minds throughout the entire performance. Perhaps it's the fact that we were both tired and stressed out from our assignments, perhaps Califone set the "sleepy" foundations wrong and perhaps it's really not that interesting. I think a show like last night's is definitely not for me. I need something more engaging, something more upbeat. A super "nua (3)" show only makes me sleepy. I will still listen to Iron & Wine but on my iPod, not through any of their concerts. It's simply too mellow for me.

Read The Daily Tarheel's review on the show here.